Chapter 3 - the first wife
Lauren Holloway disappeared seven years earlier.
At the time, Grant told police she had left after an argument.
Her car was found at a bus station.
No body.
No evidence of violence.
No charges.
The case went cold.
Elise learned all of that from a hospital bed.
Doctors confirmed Benjamin was stable.
Elise was severely dehydrated, bruised, and exhausted, but there were no signs of premature labor.
Physically, she had survived.
Emotionally, she had barely begun understanding what she had survived from.
Detective Aaron Cole sat beside her.
“Did Grant ever mention Lauren?”
“Never.”
“Did Judith?”
“No.”
“Mara?”
“No.”
“Anyone?”
Elise shook her head.
“He told me I was his first marriage.”
Aaron looked grim.
“Lauren said the same thing in old messages to friends.”
Elise stared.
“What do you mean?”
“She apparently learned late in the relationship that Grant had been engaged before her.”
“To someone else?”
“We’re checking.”
Pattern.
Elise hated the word, but it was already forming.
Aaron placed a photograph on the table.
Lauren was smiling beside Grant outside the same suburban house.
Same porch.
Same yard.
Elise’s stomach tightened.
“She lived there?”
“For eighteen months.”
“And disappeared from there?”
“Yes.”
Elise looked toward the window.
The muddy hole in the backyard seemed suddenly less singular.
“Did anyone search the yard?”
“Yes.”
“Did you dig?”
“No reason to at the time.”
Elise went quiet.
Aaron understood what she was imagining.
“We searched it last night with ground-penetrating equipment.”
“And?”
“No human remains.”
Relief came unexpectedly.
Lauren might still be alive.
Or she might have died elsewhere.
Neither solved anything.
Aaron continued.
“Mara is asking to speak with you.”
Elise hesitated.
Mara had watched.
Detached.
Silent.
She had not stopped Grant.
But she had exposed the floor compartment.
“Bring her.”
Mara entered under police supervision.
Her eyes were swollen from crying.
“I’m sorry.”
Elise stared.
Mara sat.
“I know that doesn’t mean anything.”
“It means very little.”
Mara nodded.
“I understand.”
“Why did you watch?”
Mara looked down.
“Because I was afraid if I reacted, Mom would know.”
“Know what?”
“That I put the phone where you could reach it.”
Elise froze.
“What?”
“When Grant made me help fill the hole around you, I saw your old phone in your pocket.”
Elise remembered.
She had hidden it before being dragged outside.
“When your arm got trapped, it slipped.”
Mara swallowed.
“I pushed it into a freezer bag from the outdoor refrigerator. I buried it near your shoulder.”
Elise stared.
“The straw?”
“Grant put it there.”
“He wanted me conscious.”
“Yes.”
Mara’s eyes filled.
“He said fear works better if you can breathe.”
Aaron’s jaw tightened.
Elise closed her eyes.
Mara continued.
“I turned the phone screen toward your hand.”
“You knew it could call?”
“I saw emergency mode.”
“Why not just call police yourself?”
“My mother had my phone.”
“That didn’t stop you from walking away.”
“No.”
Mara accepted that too.
Then she said:
“I thought he only wanted the signature.”
Elise looked at her.
“What signature?”
“The company transfer.”
“How long did you know?”
“Two weeks.”
Anger exploded through Elise.
“You knew?”
“Yes.”
“You knew they were forging documents?”
“Not at first.”
“When did you know?”
“When Mom asked me to witness your signature on something you hadn’t signed.”
Aaron leaned forward.
“What document?”
Mara described the temporary voting transfer.
She refused to sign.
Judith threatened to cut her off financially.
Mara stayed silent.
Then Elise found the hidden paperwork.
Everything escalated.
“What did Lauren have to do with it?” Elise asked.
Mara went pale.
“I was fifteen when Lauren disappeared.”
“What happened?”
“I heard them fighting.”
“About what?”
“Money.”
Of course.
“Did Grant hurt her?”
Mara’s voice shook.
“I don’t know.”
“What did you see?”
“Lauren ran into the backyard.”
Elise’s heart tightened.
“Then?”
“Grant followed.”
“And?”
Mara began crying.
“My mother told me to go upstairs.”
“You did?”
“Yes.”
“What happened the next morning?”
“Lauren was gone.”
Her car remained at the house until Grant drove it to the bus station.
Mara saw him.
She never told police.
Aaron’s face hardened.
“Why?”
“I was fifteen. Mom said Grant would go to prison and it would be my fault.”
Elise whispered:
“What was Lauren fighting about?”
Mara looked toward Aaron.
“She found a set of transfer papers.”
The same method.
Different woman.
“What did Lauren own?” Elise asked.
“Property.”
Mara swallowed.
“A lake house and several acres her father left her.”
Aaron searched the old case later that afternoon.
Three weeks after Lauren disappeared, the property transferred.
Not to Grant.
To Judith Holloway.
Lauren’s signature appeared on the deed.
May you like
Notarized two days after she vanished.
👉 Lauren disappeared after discovering nearly identical forged transfer papers—and property she owned was signed over to Judith after no one could prove Lauren was still present to sign it.
